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Granada under the command of General Reding contributed their full share, an army of 13,154 foot and 842 horse, marched in October 1808 to join the army of Catalonia; in December following 12,566 foot and 720 horse marched to that of La Mancha; and in the April of last year 3,600 were dispatched to reinforce the army of Estremadura. These troops were armed, clothed, and fed from the revenues of this province, which under the direction of its Junta were economically administered; but the Central Junta ordered the money to be sent to the general treasury, from which they engaged to provide for the troops. Their orders were obeyed, the money was delivered to them, and they neglected to pay the soldiers, or provide them with necessaries; the consequence has been neglect in recruiting, carelessness in the revenue, and a disposition to despair. Proclamations and addresses of the most animating nature have indeed been issued, but the feelings of the people have been so deadened by their supreme rulers, that they no longer possess their former energies.

I have met several members of the Junta at the evening parties of the Duchess of Gor; they complain most bitterly of the conduct of the Central Junta, deplore the situation of their country, and look with melancholy forebodings to the calamities that await them. They dread the irruption of the French; but it is easy to discern that they are not without equal apprehensions from the vindictive spirit of their own countrymen, who will accuse them of treachery as the enemy advances, and perhaps finally sacrifice them for having yielded power to the Central Junta. They talk of securing the

their

passes,

fortifying the city, and raising in mass the inhabitants of the surrounding mountains; but I am persuaded they will now make no efforts to oppose the enemy, but rather endeavour to amuse the inhabitants till all resistance will be useless.

At present they are occupied in electing the primary assemblies which are to chuse the members of the Cortes, and the assembling of that body is a subject of general conversation, but I am sorry to say not of hope. A pamphlet written in England, and translated into Spanish, has been much read; it is attributed to Lord Holland, and for the attachment it discovers to the true interests of Spain, his Lordship, whether he be the author or not, is spoken of by all intelligent men in terms of the warmest rapture. Another work on the same subject, circulated by the Junta of the province of Valencia, has also been generally read; but the more judicious prefer the opinions of the Englishman to those of their own countrymen, which they think too theoretical. The propositions of the Englishman are deemed the more practicable, as they are founded on the ancient institutions of the country, and discover a knowledge on the subject, which, in a foreigner, is considered very extraordinary.

The plan now executing has, in my opinion, one fault of a most glaring nature, and for the folly of which I am unable to comprehend the cause; when the ballot is cast up, the three candidates who have the greatest number of votes are to decide by lot which is to be the member.

There are few troops in this city; only a part of a battalion of the Swiss guards; the privates in this corps are mostly Germans,

who surrendered under Dupont, and afterwards entered into the Spanish service. The volunteers perform the duty of the garrison, and also mount guard over the French prisoners at the Alhambra. They amount to about three thousand men, and are well armed and disciplined.

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THE mountains which surround the plain of Granada may be considered as the termination of that ridge which begins in Tartary, and, after crossing Asia and Europe, branches off in one direction by Switzerland and the South of France, while another range, extending to the Pyrenees, covers the surface of Spain in various directions. The range which is here called the Cordillera, joins at the source of the Tagus, near Cuenca, with another which is separated by the river Ebro from the mountains of Navarre, which are immediately connected with the Pyrenees.

The loftiest points of the whole range are those on the Sierra Nevada near this city; one called Mulhacen, the height of which is 12,762 feet above the level of the sea, and the other Picacho de Veleta, which rises to the height of 12,459 feet. The whole chain, however, appears to the eye nearly of equal elevation ; but geometrical levels having been taken of various points in 1804, the exact height of the two points was then ascertained. The line at which the

perpetual snow commences is 9,915 feet above the level of the and from that line upwards vegetation entirely ceases.

sea,

The mountains from the Sierra Nevada towards the south decline gradually in height, till at the Sierra de Gador, near Almeria, when they again rise to the elevation of 7,800 feet, where the celebrated rock or mountain called Filabres is situated. This rock is two thousand feet in height, and four miles in circumference, and consists of one piece of solid white marble. The intermediate mountains between the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra de Gador, are named the Alpuxarras, among which several well-peopled towns are scattered, which were the places whither the Moors were removed after the conquest of Granada.

The secondary mountains are of various kinds; some are naked, and others appear of red earth, covered with herbs, trees, shrubs, and plants. One very lofty hill is composed of veined marble from the top to the bottom; another has its base covered with esparto, but to a prodigious height above is a naked rock. All these abound with mines of silver, copper, and lead, some of which were formerly worked by the Moors. From the top of the Sierra Nevada almost to the city, there is one mass or column of perpendicular rock, of a reddish brown colour, without any perpendicular or oblique streaks. In many parts, the melting of the snow has washed the rock into the vallies, where, by decomposition, it has formed a most luxuriant and productive soil.

Two leagues from the city, on a level with the river Xenil, a quarry of serpentine is worked, whence the pillars that adorn some parts of the cathedral have been taken: it is of a green colour,

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